Are You Emotionally Ready to Ditch the Weight for Good?

For most dieters, going on a diet means lots of anxiety, self-criticism, impatience, and deprivation.

Mentally, you know that you need to change your dietary habits to carve off the pounds, but emotionally, you don't really want to go on another diet. You don't want to give up your favorite foods. You're just doing it temporarily because you're not happy with how you look and feel.

You believe that ditching the excess pounds will make a difference in your life.
Maybe.

Maybe not.

Weight-loss success depends on how permanent your new dietary habits are going to be and if you can emotionally handle the diet you've chosen to use.

While it might be easy to stick to someone else's dietary rules for a few weeks, or follow an exact menu, step by step, the real challenge is doing what's necessary to keep the pounds from coming back.

And that's what's hard on the emotions.

Diets only work if you're happy with what you're eating. If you're getting enough volume to stay full. And if you aren't using it as a punishment for being fat.

I overate on Saturday night, so now I have to fast on Monday.

What you eat to trim off the pounds is your new normal. It's not a temporary eating style.

When I finally got that through my head, and realized that a permanent lifestyle change had to include more carbs than Keto allows, but smaller portion sizes, I knew that I was finally emotionally ready to lose the weight for good.

Don't Try to Do Too Much Too Soon

Dieting doesn't have to be uncomfortable.

Aim for small changes.

It was really a shock to see my blood glucose soar up into diabetic territory last summer. My knee-jerk reaction was to run back to Keto for 30 days. I knew that Keto had the power to quickly reverse that condition.

But I also knew that Keto wasn't what I wanted to do for the rest of my life. It's a nice foundation, a healthy diet if you love meat and fat, but my body honestly doesn't like giving up the carbs.

Neither does my mind and emotions.

Like many others, I'm emotionally attached to certain foods and do not want to give them up forever. Neither do I want the task of meticulously counting calories, carbs, or points.

So 30 days to fix my blood sugar surges was my first goal.

I did what I had to do to make that happen.

I wasn't interested in weight loss. I was doing it to correct my blood sugar. However, I did weigh myself everyday and kept a weekly record of what my weight was doing, so I could see the downward trend over time. And, I am so glad I did that.

At the end of the first 30 days, I decided to go another 60 because my blood sugar wasn't where I wanted it to be. I wasn't hungry, like I usually am when dieting, and I was down just under 10 pounds.

There was no reason to change what I was doing.

At the end of 90 days, I began to slowly transition myself from low carb to my own personalized diet plan.

Why Do Weight-Loss Diets Fail?

Diets fail because they ask you to completely disrupt your normal style of eating and replace it with a totally foreign way to eat. They ask you to give up your favorite foods forever.

It's been much easier for me this time around because I didn't do it that way. I didn't try to do too much too soon.

While Keto is a pretty drastic way to eat, I didn't go into this decision with the idea that I had to do Keto perfectly. Or even forever. I gradually made changes where they were needed, and participated in so-called cheat meals (higher carb days) when the situation presented itself.

The difference?

I accepted the consequences on the scale for those decisions. If what I'm doing today is a permanent way of life, with a few future adjustments, then the speed at which the pounds come off doesn't matter.

What matters is that you learn what it takes to maintain your losses. And I'm glad to say that I've done exactly that.

I'm losing weight without having to give up my favorite foods!

Are You Emotionally Ready to Change your Life?

Knowing what you really want in life is key.

Some people do fantastic on Keto. Others, not so much. It depends on how insulin resistant you are and whether you can accept the fact that there is no such thing as low-carb magic.

People who count calories or points do just as well as those who count carbs. Weight loss depends on you eating at a calorie deficit, regardless of how many carbs you're eating. How you trim those calories is what matters most.

Many Keto dieters end up moving to 1 or 2 meals per day to get the job done. Others, quit and walk away; returning to all of their old dietary habits.

This is what happened to me several years ago.

Emotionally, I wasn't able to handle the lengthy weight-loss stall that placed me 20 pounds above my original weight-loss goal of 125 pounds; and went back to eating haphazardly.

I didn't regain all of my weight, I was 222 when I started this time around instead of 257, but I had gained enough to make it a serious emotional struggle when I tried to return to where I was when I last went rouge.

The emotional battle with food lasted for years until I came up with the idea of doing weight loss in reverse.

What made this time different?

I am not following rules made my others. I am not following a list of acceptable foods for dieting. I'm not giving up the foods I'm emotionally attached to. And that includes real sugar.

I'm simply trimming my portion sizes at meals and dessert.

I'm cutting calories and carbs without counting them.

I'm ditching the anxiety, self-criticism, impatience, and feelings of deprivation because there's nothing to be anxious about. There's no reason to criticize my dietary choices. And no need to be impatient with how fast the pounds are coming off.

The weight-loss trend continues to go down.

And I'm having no feelings of deprivation because no food is off limits.

I had a pat of butter and drizzle of honey on my gluten-free cornbread last night to go with our pork and vegetable soup.

It's only the serving size that's changing.

And so far, it's working great.

I weighed in at 176.2 this morning. About 11 pounds above my current goal weight of 165. I'm no longer shooting for 125. I just want to get back to where I was before I tried to starve the weight off with a round of hHCG.

If I can't get there, that's okay, too. Dieting works best when you go with the flow.